


backroad

by NoxWrites



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: F/F, Fluff, Slow Burn, small town girl au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-03-17
Updated: 2017-03-17
Packaged: 2018-10-06 17:13:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,456
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10340205
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NoxWrites/pseuds/NoxWrites
Summary: Alex Danvers sits with her feet dangling off of the wooden dock Maggie's Aunt built on the lake. She lets her toes skim the water and her left hand intertwines with Maggie's right. She looks to the girl on her left side, finding something she never knew she was looking for in the girl's eyes. In her smile. In her laugh."Maggie." Alex taps the other girl with her foot."Yeah, Danvers?" Maggie turns from looking at the morning clouds to Alex's face."I think I might be in love with you." Alex says it just above a whisper. For Maggie, It was screamed from the mountain tops.orsmall town girl au





	

If Alex had a dollar for every time she groaned during this road trip, she could buy a helicopter to pick her up and take her home.

They’re singing Sweet Home Alabama, Alex wants to puke. They're laughing and giggling, Alex wants to dive out of the car. They're on a goddamn road trip and Alex wants to be anywhere else but there.

She rolls her window down, putting her head slightly outside of the car door as her mother and younger sister scream their hearts out. She can see for miles, which is either good or bad. Good because it's a gorgeous view of just desolate barrenness. Bad because they could probably be lost.

Her eyes close slowly, with nothing to do she lets sleep take her for as long as it wishes. The dull whisper of the wind through her hair makes it easy to think of anything but the chorus of Living On A Prayer. Her head wobbles against the windowsill and the car door, like a baby in a rocking chair as she falls to sleep.

She dreams of anything but this. She dreams of being back at Midvale where she can see her friends. She dreams of the quiet nights where she would go up to the roof and watch the stars, she hasn’t been able to do that in a while since Kara arrived. She dreams of her dad, laughing and smiling from the other side of the dinner table.

He’s the whole reason they're on this trip. It’s been six months since he passed, and Mom wouldn’t talk about it. Alex thinks this is her way of coping. Get as far away from him as possible.

Alex hears her mom whimpering and sobbing at night. It breaks her heart but she doesn't know what to do. She tries to push out the thoughts of her dad, to anything else other than him.

She doesn’t get very far before a wheezing sound wakes her. Alex sits up from the passenger seat, turning to face her mother who has a puzzling look on her face. Her mom is still staring at the steering wheel and gauges on the dashboard as the car wheezes.

Alex should get another dollar, she groans and tosses her head back onto the seat in defeat. _Great_.

Her mom pulls to the side of the road, turning the ignition off and getting out of the car. Alex begins to tap her fingers against the car door in impatience.

A few minutes later her mom is back in the car with a fake smile on her face. “The car is having a little hiccup so we’ll pull into the next town we see and get it squared away.”

Another dollar.

They drive for a twenty minutes, the car choking and wheezing time to time as the push it to it's limits. Alex points out a side road with a sign that reads _Food and Comfort, Four Miles._ Her mom pats the car’s dashboard as if that would give it more strength to keep going.

The car makes it to the rest stop in one piece, if you can even call it a rest stop. It’s a gas station, a worn down one at that. The paint is chipping away and the signs that hang are fading. Dust covers the tops of some boxes and cabinets outside of the station.

Alex’s mom tells her to go inside to get some help. The inside isn’t much better. The door scrapes against the tiled floor, which is also peeling and breaking. The isles are stacked with food, all fresh from the looks of it. It has fresh food and drinks, the fridges work but the entire store just screams haunted.

The clerk is nice enough to help her mom out, he tells them about the town they drove into. Blue Springs, Nebraska. It looks like it's overdue for a remodel but he swears it's one of the best places to be.

Alex sets herself down in the car, kicking her feet up against the dashboard as her mother and the clerk work on the car. A tap against the side window sparks her attention. Her mom waits as Alex manually rolls down the window.

“Here’s twenty bucks. Go take your sister to the dinner down the street to get some dinner. We may be here for a while.” Her mom hands her the money as Alex steps out of the car.

She should be getting twenty-one dollars because she groans once again.

Kara is staring at something in the garage, totally ignoring the rest of the world because when Alex taps her on the shoulder she startles.

“Let’s go get some food.” Alex waves her sister over to follow her across the street.

The diner is yellow in color, mainly because of the lights having so much grime covering them that the light has to fight to get out. The booths are in somewhat alright condition, some have the leather torn and some are just fine. Alex decides to forego the booths in favor for a stool at the parlor. Kara finds too much fun in spinning around on the stools and Alex has to tell her to knock it off.

A young waitress comes up from behind the parlor, notepad in hand and hair up. It’s like they walked into an old nineties movie.

“Can we get two burgers, one serving of curly fries with one soda and one milkshake?” Alex asks without looking at the menu. It’s a diner, a burger with fries and a drink are like the ultimate diner food.

“Coming right up.”

The waitress walks away, to an opening between her and the back room which Alex assumes is the kitchen. It only takes a few minutes for the food to come out and the drinks follow. The waitress lays the change out on the table in front of Alex. Alex asks her to split the ten into a five and for her to keep a five.

The waitress gives her a little smile at the tip and then comes back with Alex’s other five. A handful of coins are scattered from where the ten previously sat. Kara steals all of them before rushin off to the small arcade machine in the back of the diner.

Alex rolls her eyes, unbelievable. She eats her food while checking on Kara every few seconds. Her stomach yelling at her to hurry up. She takes the cold soda and puts it to her lips, drinking half of it before continuing to dig into her burger.

“You're not going to have any burger left if you inhale it.”

A voice from her right side startles her, she turns slightly. Setting her burger down and swallowing before she speaks.

“Who are you?” Alex wipes the ketchup from her face after she talks.

“The name’s Maggie Sawyer.” The girl's hand sticks out a bit from where it was resting against the counter.

Alex has to wipe her hand clean of grease before she can shake Maggie’s hand, “Alex Danvers.”

“Nice to meet you, Danvers.” Maggie pulls her hand back and goes back to staring at the other side of the parlor.

Alex shakes her head with confusion, returning to her meal and drink. The waitress comes out again but passes over Alex and goes straight to Maggie, brown paper bag in one hand and a cold beverage in the other. She slides them on top of the counter and gives Maggie a large smile.

Maggie opens the bag, rifles through a few things before pulling out a carton of fries and opening her drink.

“You're not from around here, are you?” Maggie tags a swig of cola as she slides into a seat.

“Quite the observationist.” Alex goes back to bite into her burger.

“So what brings you to Blue Springs, Nebraska?” Maggie spins her chair to face Alex.

Alex should get another dollar because she groans, “Mom thought it would be a grand idea to take me and my little sister on a roadtrip.”

“You don’t sound too happy about that road trip.”

Alex shakes her head. “You have quite the intuition.”

Maggie puts her hands up in surrender, “Alright sassy pants, no need to get rude.”

Alex was shocked at the implication, “Hey! You started this conversation.”

“You didn’t have to respond.” Maggie smirks, her dimples on display and suddenly Alex thinks dimples are the greatest things. “Where are you staying anyway?”

“I have no clue whatsoever.” Alex puts her head in her hands, not having thought that the repair could take longer than a couple hours. They could be stuck here for days.

“I’ll ask my Aunt to fix up the guest rooms and you guys can stay with us. Free of charge.” Maggie gets out her phone from her pocket but stops when Alex places a hand on her arm.

“I just met you, you just met me, and you're offering your house to a stranger and her family. We could be murders for all you know.”

“Are you murderers?”

“No.”

“Then we’re all good. Come on.”

Alex rolls her eyes. Maggie stands and grips her brown bag before heading to the door. Alex’s eyes follow Maggie to the door, she stands with it propped open against her elbow. Alex wrapped what was left of her burger in a napkin, tossing it into a nearby trash can as she met Maggie at the door.

The two walk down the street, Maggie explaining the directions to her house. She’s always smiling. The cold night air couldn’t take her happiness even if it wanted. It was astounding, to see something so bright in the midst of a dark night.

Alex follows Maggie through the streets. She takes in the small town, isolated and alone. The school sits in the middle of town, an L-shaped building with no fencing around it’s yards.

There’s a large church just beyond it, Alex can see the moon reflect off the top. The houses are small, all single stories, but they’re long. They have weeds growing out of cracks and vines growing out of some backyard fences.

If Alex didn’t see people moving she would have thought that it was a ghost town. It’s quiet, isolated from the world of moving cars and towers of glass. The woods that Maggie points out are thick, nothing separates the woods from houses. Alex smiles, they live with the woods not around them. There are roots creaking out of the ground and tearing up the sidewalks, no one cares to fix it according to Maggie.

They leave the houses behind, going through a solemn street that starts in between two houses. A swing gate blocks them, a large sign reading _Private Property_ greets them.

“Maggie?” She lifts the chained sign closer to herself.

“Yeah?” Maggie is mid fence-hopping as she turns to look at Alex. The brown bag being left on the ground in front of the gate.

“I thought you said you lived here?” Alex asks, still on the opposite side.

“I do.” Maggie plops onto the ground, dusting off dirt which got kicked up when she landed.

Alex gestures to the gate in front of her. Maggie simply shrugs and leans through the bars to get the bag.

“We lost the key to the gate a couple years ago.” Maggie stands back up, motioning Alex to get over the gate.

Alex stays still, questioning the reality of the situation. When Maggie gives her a stern look, as if to say it's true, she moves towards the gate. Wrapping her hands around the cool metal before lifting herself above and over, she makes it to the other side and stands in front of Maggie. Maggie’s face returns to it's usual smiling and happy self.

The two walk down the dirt road, following the fence that separates the path from woods. Alex looks between the tree line every so often and catches a glimpse of movement.

“Is there anything out there?” Alex questions, turning her head back to Maggie.

Maggie looks past Alex, towards the woods. “Yeah. Some foxes, some people say wolves but who knows. They never bother us. Sometimes they get on Aunt M’s property but she just lets them do what they want and leave on their own accord.”

Alex nods her head, looking back to the woods. A bush rustles for a moment and Alex freezes. She watches as it shakes and sways, Maggie watches from over her shoulder. She leaps back into Maggie when a squirrel pops out from under the bush.

“It’s just a squirrel. He won’t hurt you.” Maggie digs into the brown bag, pulling out a french fry and tossing it to the critter who is watching them.

The squirrel picks at the fry, biting into it before grabbing it and racing back into the woods. Alex takes a breath, her heart racing from the scare. Maggie walks ahead and takes a left turn at a three way intersection.

“Where does that go to?” Alex motions to the other path.

“The lake.”

Alex nods, still following Maggie through the twisting path until they are standing in front of a waist-high wooden gate. The gate’s lock is just a rope tied to two pegs on both sides of the gate’s doors. Maggie unwraps the rope, leaving it tied to one end, and pushes the gate open with her hip.

The house is not like the town they had just been in, not by a long shot. Where the houses were made with stucco and beams, Maggie’s house was wooden. Where the houses had a path way up to the front door, Maggie’s had a large greenhouse with broken windows and shutters. A wire fence runs from the right side of the house onward to the edge of the property, then backwards around what Alex can only assume is their backyard and then back to the left side of the house. The dirt path they had currently been on was now lined with stone. It’s surrounded by overgrown bushes and plants. It breaks off into smaller paths and Alex can make out what looks like a bird bath to her right and a swing to her left.

Maggie leads her to the entrance of the house. The barn door front doors make Alex feel calm, as if this is a place that her soul has known all her life. The etchings on the door frame remind her of vines, wrapping and holding onto the door to hold it up. The door swings open, no lock or handle to keep it closed. It swings on its hinges and lets the two girls enter the battered green house.

Plants in pots rest on the floor, on tables, hanging from the ceiling. It’s not dirty, there’s no dirt or mulch thrown about the floor like someone would expect from a broken greenhouse. It’s tidy. The fertilizer and hoses rest in the far back corner. Alex runs her hands through some of the leaves. Different plants live in the greenhouse, succulents, flowers, cacti, and even some small fruit bushes on the front table.

Maggie leads her to the front of the greenhouse, a smaller singular door red in color greets them. Maggie kicks a rock to the side and a key flashes underneath. She leans down to grab it, placing it in the door handle and unlocking the house.

Alex walks in first. Maggie being the gentlewoman she is, holds the door for her. She closes the door behind her, walking deeper into the house and Alex stands by the door. Unsure what to do or where to go. She watches Maggie move to what appears to be the kitchen. Flicking a switch and the house illuminates in a white glow.

It’s an open floor plan, the part of the house they currently stand on is a foot above the rest of the house. There’s a small row of steps stretching from one end to the other that leads into the living room. The floors are wooden until you step down, the cool tile is a brown which almost matches the wooden floor.

Against the back of the house, Alex can see the backyard she had early predicted would be there. The back wall of the house was lined with panes of glass. About five feet wide before a small wooden beam separates one to start another. They stretch from the floor to the ceiling, or where there should be a ceiling. The house has an open ceiling, Alex can see the beams and structure holding up the roof.

Lights hang from some of the beams, the look like christmas lights but less festive and more purposeful, all strung around beams and taped down at the end. More potted plants hang from the ceiling. Plants are scattered by the furniture as well. The long couch in the living room sits in front of a table which sits in front of a fireplace. A carpet rests underneath the table and stretches to reach most of the tile by the couch.

The steps Alex noted earlier turn into a small corner, making an L-shaped floor pattern. A hallway seems to be where it leads but the light doesn’t fully reach the area for Alex to see. It does, however, reach far enough that Alex can see on the left side of the house a staircase to a second floor.

The second floor rests over a closed off room. There’s no door to the room but it has walls covering most of it's appearance to the rest of the house. Alex can’t see what’s on to the second floor, the light just casts a shadow to that portion of the house.

She turns back to Maggie, who has began unpacking the brown bag she bought from the diner. She walks to the kitchen, it’s farm style but modern as well. Alex was fascinated. The wooden cabinets and shelves all topped off with granite counter tops. The white contrasts the dark wood but matches with the white couch and rug in the living room.

“This place is amazing.” Alex gestures to around her.

“Thank you, I’ll be sure to tell Aunt M that you love it. Maybe she’ll build you a house like this when you're older.” Maggie smiles, placing the wrapped burgers in the fridge.

“She built this?” Alex says with shock in her voice.

“Yeah. Took her two years but she says she loves every part of it.” Maggie tosses the brown bag once everything is away. “Let me go wake her and see if it's cool for you guys to stay.”

“Wake her?” Alex checked the time on her watch. _6:53pm_. “It’s only seven?”

“She wakes up super early and doesn’t stop until like twelve. So I take care of myself until she wakes up for dinner.” Maggie smiles, walking down to the hallway Alex had been curious about earlier.

She takes a seat at the bar of the Sawyer kitchen. Resting her head in her hands and rubbing at her eyes. Exhaustion slowly creeping on her.

A buzz in her pocket wakes her up quickly. She grips her phone and clicks the green button to answer the call.

“Hello?”

“Alexandra Danvers, where on Earth are you? Kara came back to the car on her own.”

_Kara. Shit._

“Oh crap. Mom, I am so sorry. This girl was talking to me in the diner and she offered a place to stay. I was so caught up in finding a place to sleep. I am so sorry.”

“This better be a house made out of gold or so help me.”

_Kind of._ “Okay. Hold on.”

She cups her hand over the microphone, seeing Maggie come back down the hall. “Hey, I am an idiot. I left my sister at the diner and–”

Maggie starts laughing hysterically, “You left your kid sister to follow a stranger into the woods? Oh your mom must be pissed!” She continued her fit of laughter until she sees Alex’s death glare. “Tell your mom to come on down. It’s not that far. We can meet her at the gate.”

Alex nods, returning to her conversation on the phone. “Okay. Maggie says it’s cool. So just ask the clerk for directions to the Sawyer Lot. We’ll meet you at the gate.”

Her mother agrees and then ends their conversation with a threat of, _If you ever leave your sister again so help me god there will be consequences._

“I’m dead.” Alex groans. She’s really racking up dollars.

Maggie just starts laughing again and the two head to meet Alex’s family at the gate. 

**Author's Note:**

> hope you enjoyed. (this will be updated in time with mma au updates. so once a week)
> 
> and as always, find me on tumblr @canaries


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